The Office of Teacher Education (OTE) provides operational leadership and support for the initial, additional teacher licensure program area faculty, staff, teacher candidates, and cooperating school professionals. OTE works across the college and university in support of the teaching, research, outreach, and accreditation goals specific to the development of pre-service teacher candidates and school-based professionals in district/school clinical preparation partnerships.
Director: Stacy Ernst, PhD
Contact office:
ote@umn.edu
612-625-5060
We deepen University-school partnerships to improve preK-12 student learning. Major initiatives include: enhancing clinical placements, co-teaching in student teaching, improving mentoring of teacher candidates, preparing liaisons as teacher leaders, supporting partner school change, coordinating innovative projects, and sustaining a strong partner network.
We support current teacher licensure students throughout their time at the University. Major aspects of our work include: new student orientation, completing the Minnesota state teacher licensing process, and post-graduation job search.
From new curriculum projects to program redesign, we work with teacher education programs and the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) to make sure state standards are met and exceeded. We collect and disseminate unit level assessment data for internal and external review, with a special focus on using data to improve teacher preparation at the University of Minnesota. Our team ensures the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) maintains Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) approval for recommending teacher candidates for licensure.